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One-in-Five Health Care Employers Plan to Hire in 2010, Reveals Annual CareerBuilder Forecast

CHICAGO, January 27, 2010 - Since the start of the recession, the health care industry has added 631,000 jobs*, consistently adding headcount each month. CareerBuilder’s annual health care hiring forecast indicates that that hiring momentum will likely continue into 2010. More than one-in-five (22 percent) health employers said they plan to increase the number of full-time, permanent employees this year, up from 17 percent who said the same last year. The survey was conducted between November 5 and November 23, 2009, among more than 240 health care employers.


In addition to plans to add full-time employees, health care employers will also be bringing part-time help on board to help meet demand. One-in-ten (10 percent) said they had plans to increase the number of part-time employees at their organizations in 2010.

"While most industries struggled with headcount since the start of the recession, health care was and continues to be one of the strongest industries for hiring," said Jason Ferrara, vice president of corporate marketing for CareerBuilder. "Forty percent of health care employers, by far the highest among industries we surveyed, have open positions for which they can’t find qualified candidates. This shows that there is high demand for qualified health care workers across a variety of areas; everything from medical assistants to records specialists to nurses."

TOP HEALTH CARE RECRUITMENT TRENDS FOR 2010
Health care will continue to be a strong industry for hiring this year. The following are four trends for 2010:

Replacing Low-Performing Employees - Health care employers are taking advantage of the large number of top talent in the current labor pool to strengthen their work force. Forty-three percent of health care employers say they plan to replace lower-performing employees with higher-performers in 2010. When asked to grade their current work force, 18 percent rated them an "A", 68 percent a "B", 13 percent a "C", and less than one percent a "D" or "F."

More Flexibility - Flexible work options continue to be an important benefit for health care employers to provide workers. Thirty-seven percent of health care employers said they will provide more flexible work arrangements for employees in 2010, including:

  • Alternative schedules - come in early and leave early or come in later and leave later - 74 percent

  • Compressed work weeks - work the same hours, but in fewer days - 53 percent

  • Telecommuting -40 percent

  • Job sharing - 20 percent

  • Summer hours - 12 percent

Recruitment Tools - As demand for qualified workers continues, health care employers will leverage a variety of recruitment tools in 2010 to fill open positions. Health care employers plan to spend more money on the following recruitment tools this year:

  • Online recruitment sites - 25 percent

  • Newspaper classifieds - 20 percent

  • Career fairs - 18 percent

  • Social and professional networking sites - 13 percent

  • Staffing firms and recruiters - 7 percent

Freelance Workers - Health care employers are turning to freelance or contract health care workers to help support the demand for qualified workers.

  • Thirty-four percent of health care employers are hiring contract or freelance workers in 2010.

Green Jobs - Being "green" is a burgeoning movement within the health care industry as companies seek ways to run more efficiently. Health care employers plan to be more environmentally aware in 2010, as 10 percent plan to add "green" jobs. Eight percent added them in 2009. "Green jobs" are positions that implement environmentally conscious design, policy and technology to improve the conservation and sustainability.

*Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.com among 241 health care hiring managers and human resource professionals (employed full-time; not self-employed; non-government; with at least significant involvement in hiring decisions); ages 18 and over between November 5 and November 23, 2009, respectively (percentages for some questions are based on a subset of U.S. employers or employees, based on their responses to certain questions). With a pure probability sample of 241, one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 6.31 percentage points, respectively. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.

About CareerBuilder®
CareerBuilder is the global leader in human capital solutions, helping companies target and attract their most important asset - their people. Its online career site, CareerBuilder.com®, is the largest in the United States with more than 23 million unique visitors, 1 million jobs and 32 million resumes. CareerBuilder works with the world’s top employers, providing resources for everything from recruitment to employment branding and data analysis. More than 9,000 websites, including 140 newspapers and broadband portals such as MSN and AOL, feature CareerBuilder’s proprietary job search technology on their career sites. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI), Tribune Company, The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI) and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), CareerBuilder and its subsidiaries operate in the United States, Europe, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit www.careerbuilder.com.

CareerBuilder Media Contact
For all media inquiries and interview requests, contact:

Jennifer Grasz
(P) 773-527-1164
(E) jennifer.grasz@careerbuilder.com